Tourism plays significant role in local economy

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - As Memorial Day Weekend looms, you better bet the Black Hills region will soon be packed with tourists from all over the country.

“Last year, we had about 14.7 million visitors to South Dakota. That just in the Black Hills and Badlands region spent over 1.9 billion dollars and supported over 21,000 jobs,” said Michelle Thomson, president of Black Hills and Tourism Association.

Thompson added they’re expecting this to be a bigger year for tourism in the region.

“We had a really great summer in 2023 and we’re actually looking at some increases potentially for 2024. I’ve seen some studies out there that actually say we might have a record year,” said Thomson.

According to Visit Rapid City, Rapid City alone saw 3.8 million tourists. Visit Rapid City CEO Brook Kaufman said 3.8 million is just inches away from their goal.

“Our internal goal is we would like to get to four million visitors. So, that’s obviously going to come in a lot of different ways through our sales efforts, through marketing, through PR. We’re going to continue to do what we do and continue to do it even better to work on that,” said Kaufman.

Kaufman added visitors provided a sizable impact to the local economy which brought in $479 million to Rapid City and created more than 7,400 jobs.

She says she isn’t surprised at what tourists are spending their money on when they visit.

“So, no surprise, people love to eat, so restaurants are always a top spend for people. And second, a close second, is lodging. So, we break it down by categories where it’s transportation, entertainment, (and) recreation. People spend money on a lot of different things, but certainly always at the top of the list: food,” said Kaufman.

Kaufman added it’s not just restaurants and hotels that are impacted by travel and tourism.

“I also think there’s a perception that it’s only restaurants that benefit or create jobs or its only lodging properties. And the truth is a lot of people have jobs because of the tourism industry. So, many people need linen companies, or they need accounting firms or business services,” she said.

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